In May 2019, the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) released the Living Building Challenge (LBC) 4.0, the latest version of the world’s most impactful green building standard. The release of the seven Petal Handbooks followed in 2020 as an online resource, clarifying program requirements, providing explanations and examples, and listing all published Exceptions for each Imperative.
Now, ILFI is pleased to announce the first Quarterly Update of the LBC 4.0 Petal Handbooks. With Handbooks now accessed online through the Membership Dashboard, regular quarterly updates to the Handbooks are possible, making them a living and evolving resource.
PETAL HANDBOOK QUARTERLY UPDATES
The Petal Handbooks will be updated quarterly to reflect new Exceptions and clarifications from the Dialogue; to add case studies, explanatory text, tables, or graphics; and to make any other amendments or additions necessary for improving the clarity and content of the handbooks. Quarterly updates will occur in January, April, July, and October of each year, at which time the previous version of the online Petal Handbook will be archived and the new version with a date stamp on the cover page will be issued.
With each quarterly update, a list of revisions will be published, summarizing all substantive changes in that update. Should project teams wish to reference previous versions of the handbook, a link in the Petal Handbooks table of contents will provide access to a downloadable .pdf of the original Petal Handbook or all subsequent quarterly updates.
While project teams will be held to the Petal Handbook version that is current when the project registers, project teams are encouraged to reference, and have the option to use, information that is added to later versions at their discretion. Therefore, project team members will benefit from using the latest online version of the Petal Handbooks, to ensure they are aware of all the most current Exceptions, clarifications, and updates.
RED LIST UPDATES
With the release of the Living Building Challenge 4.0, ILFI introduced the LBC Watch List. The intent of the Watch List is to signal to manufacturers and project teams that ILFI has identified certain chemicals and compound groups for potential inclusion in the LBC Red List. The Watch List does not impact a product’s Declaration Status, or the ability of project teams to use products that contain these chemicals on LBC projects. The Red List remains the enforceable screening list.
The Red List will be updated annually in January of each year from the list of CASRNs on the Watch List that have been designated as “Priority for Red List Inclusion” for a minimum of 12 months. The Watch List and designation as a “Priority for Red List Inclusion” chemical may be updated more frequently throughout the year. This delay of at least one year between designating CASRNs as “Priority” and their addition to the Red List allows ILFI to engage with green building stakeholders in the intervening months to continue research, allows time for manufacturers to phase out “priority” chemicals from their products, and ensure alignment, rigor and relevance of the list.
Though the Red List groupings were changed with the release of LBC 4.0, no new CASRNs were added at that time. January 2021 will see the first update of CASRNs on the LBC 4.0 Red List. The Red List is applicable across ILFI’s programs, including the Living Building Challenge (LBC), Core, Living Community Challenge (LCC), Declare, and the Living Product Challenge (LPC). Declare labels and projects registered after the release of the new Red List must adhere to the new version.
To become a Member and view the Petal Handbooks, see our Membership page.
For more information for Declare manufacturers see our Declare FAQs.
For more information for LBC teams, see our Red List FAQs.
